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Moscow 2014
Moscow 2014 served as the fifth round of the 2014 DTM Season, held at the Moscow Raceway in Moscow, Russia. Using the extended version of the circuit, the DTM Moskau meeting of 2014 marked the half way stage of the season. Having qualified on pole, Belgian racer Maxime Martin claimed a stunning maiden win in what was only his fifth race in the series. Martin drove an almost perfect race to remain unpressured throughout, despite a safety car at the half way mark caused by Timo Scheider. Bruno Spengler and joined him on the podium as Championship leader Marco Wittmann managed to extend his lead. Background Wittmann came to the Russian capital with a nineteen point lead over Edoardo Mortara, the Italian the first of three drivers seperated by four points. and Mike Rockenfeller completed that trio, with Adrien Tambay completing the top five. Down in seventh was Robert Wickens, whose maiden victory at the Norisring meant he was the best placed Mercedes driver in the Championship, with only he and Christian Vietoris in the top ten for the Stuttgarters. The top three in the Teams' Championship were only seperated by six points, as Team Abt snatched the lead from BMW Team RMG. Joining them were the second main Audi team in Abt Sportsline, with a larger gap to the fourth placed team in Team Phoenix. The first of the Mercedes teams could be found in the form of the second Team HWA squad, with their other teams also on the score board, but further back. Entries Below is the entry list for the : Qualifying A dry, warm and sunny Saturday afternoon in Moscow played host to the qualifying session, which followed the usual three round format. Q1 would see all 23 drivers try their hand at getting into Q2 over 20 minutes, with five missing out on the mark. Q2 would see a further ten drop out leaving eight to battle for pole over ten minutes, with no pre-session penalties meant to affect the starting order. Q1 Defending Champion Mike Rockenfeller set the fastest time of the first quali-session to cruise through to Q2 amongst a host of Audi and BMW cars. In contrast, Mercedes looked to be struggling as Pascal Wehrlein, Gary Paffett, Christian Vietoris and home boy Vitaly Petrov all fell at the first hurdle, and would share the bottom four places. Joining them would be Martin Tomczyk, who narrowly missed out on beating a fifth Merc in Paul di Resta to drop out. Q2 A sub-1:28.750 lap proved to be the time necessary for drivers to continue on to Q3, as the final three Mercedes left the session prematurely. Robert Wickens proved to be their best driver in fourteenth, almost half a second slower than Bruno Spengler, the last of those to get through to the final part. Fastest in Q2 proved to be Maxime Martin for BMW, with his time of 1:28.523 the fastest time of the weekend to that point. Q3 A sudden drop in temperature meant that the times in Q3 were not as quick as those from Q2, although the drivers still had to be on top form to hit the front. Indeed, Martin found enough pace from his BMW once again to claim a maiden pole position at only his fifth DTM meeting, beating stable mate Spengler by two hundreths of a second. Third place, and a career high, went to in the first Audi, as the top eight was split equally between Ingolstadt and Bavaria. Post-Qualifying The results of qualifying for race two are shown below. Race With a dry Sunday afternoon emerging at the Moscow Raceway on raceday, the DMSB published the starting tyres for each car, with the top three all starting on the soft.'THESE ARE THE TYRES FOR THE START OF THE RACE', dtm.com, (ITR e.V., 12/07/2014), http://www.dtm.com/en/news/these-are-tyres-start-race-2014-07-12.html, (Accessed 03/10/2015) Mike Rockenfeller would be the first of the prime shod cars, but was expected to fall back early on to the hoard of option shod cars with Hankook expecting a large gap in performance between the two. Report A perfect start for Maxime Martin launched him straight into the lead of the race ahead of Bruno Spengler, as the entire field made it through the tight first corner cleanly.'DTM Moscow 2014 - Race Re-Live', youtube.com, (YouTube: DTM, 13/07/2014), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-oH7q_7_Lk&list=PLrjmhNF7Jz1wt1j8Zhl3BzZqYWVuFxK1J&index=6, (Accessed 03/10/2015) Sadly, that was not to last as title contender Edoardo Mortara slid wide through turn two, and was left to hit the back of Jamie Green on the inside of turn three. The Brit, and fellow Audi combatant, was spun out wide, with both falling to the back of the field as a result, as well as carrying a matching set of scars for the rest of the race. Rockenfeller, meanwhile, was already beginning to fall to the faster, softer, cars behind him, slipping behind Championship leader Marco Wittmann, among others, on his way to sixth by the end of the first lap. Robert Wickens was another driver in the wars, although the Canadian was the one on the warpath, using the tow from both Timo Glock and Miguel Molina to slingshot past the latter into the final turn. Wickens then had to defend the position from the Spaniard down the main straight as he was forced against the pitwall, with the German managing to take tenth place. Vietoris also benefitted from the battle to snatch eleventh, as Rockenfeller and Augusto Farfus desperately tried to fend off challenges from and Glock respectively. Further back Daniel Juncadella was spat out of the pack after being put into a spin, seemingly all on his own, as Martin continued to build his lead. Rockenfeller and Farfus would ultimately surrender their top ten statusesover the next few laps, DRS having not helped their cause. The next laps saw the field settle down, with Green retiring from the race as a result of his wounds from the first lap. Paul di Resta followed him onto the sidelines a couple of laps later with suspension damage, as Tambay wound up the pressure on third placed . with the Frenchman coming under pressure from Wittmann and behind. The Swiss driver tried his best to keep Tambay at bay, but ultimately his pace meant he had to allow his Playboy liveried team mate past. Unfortunately for Muller, he was unable to slam the door shut on Wittmann, who also snuck past. There was another twist, however, as the next corner put Muller up the inside of Wittmann, opening to door for Ekstrom, who got better drive out of the corner a passed the pair of them. A lunge by Wittmann later in the lap eventually got him past, with Tambay and Ekstrom already bounding away. For Muller, the next lap saw him run side-by-side with Glock in every corner, the German managing to squeeze the Swiss off the circuit on the exit of turn twelve. Pascal Wehrlein was on the war path, robbing Farfus of twelfth before drawing in Rockenfeller and Tomczyk, who were battling over tenth. Vietoris, meanwhile, pushed Muller down a further position with the Swiss ultimately coming into the pits for fresh tyres as soon as the pitwindow opened on lap 16. Rockenfeller, meanwhile, surrendered to Tomczyk to prevent him losing ever more time to Martin at the front of the field, with Mercedes inching their way into the Audi/BMW battle. Molina took advantage of a move by Wickens of to jump two places at turn thirteen, while Wittmann pitted early after the edge of his soft tyres began to fade. Wehrlein, meanwhile, was closing in on Tomczyk, with the pair exchanging blows, literally, down the main straight with the rookie emerging ahead. The maximum limit for the soft tyres now came into play, with the 23 lap mark seeing the rest of the soft starters sweep into the pits. This, however, was interuppted by Scheider], who suffered a failure of some description on the main straight and had to pull off to the side. The restricted access on the main straight meant the safety car had to be deployed as Martin, race leader, entered the pitlane. Further delaying the restart was the fact that the safety car was effectively half a lap ahead of Martin, while the pit lane was closed so Scheider's car could be pushed into the pitlane. With the pitlane closed, the stops of several drivers were delayed, handing the advantage to the Belgian at the front of the field, despite him having lost his 40 second advantage to Rockenfeller, the first of the non-soft starters. At the restart, Martin's advantage became irrelevant, as Rockenfeller misjudged a gap up the inside of team mate Tambay and put the Frenchman into a spin. He was then collected by the Playboy Audi with both out with damage as a result, with the safety car immediately back in action. The second safety car period worked out better for Martin, with the Belgian as quick as Spengler in second, and seeing the time for Farfus and Molina (the first of those on the hard tyres) reduced to get back through the field on their soft tyres when they pitted. The early stages after the restart saw Farfus and co. have to fight a rear guard action until the pitlane reopened, meaning they conceeded ever more time to Martin, as da Costa, Wickens and Juncadella joined Farfus and Molina in their post pit battle. The final stop of the day was made by Vitaly Petrov, the Russian at his home race, as Molina set the fastest lap of the race in the wake of Farfus. They had emerged eleventh and twelfth, and 28 seconds behind Martin, but had a pace advantage of almost three seconds over him. But, with ten laps to go, the time they had to carve their way up the field was running out. Juncadella fell to Joey Hand off camera in the closing stages, with the American starting a last gasp charge through the field. Tomczyk, meanwhile, became the first of the now hard shod cars to fall to Farfus and Molina, with da Costa also starting to bring himself into play, as the race became timed rather than distance based. Their charge, however, was ultimately halted by Mortara, who had recovered from his early contact with Green to put himself into ninth, and was now putting up a spirited defence against the Brazilian. Their battle brought Molina and da Costa ever closer, with contact between the quartet shared equally. A lunge by Farfus ended up with Molina almost snatching the place, but to be put on the outside of the following turn and passed by da Costa, who then set about defending the back of Farfus. Ekstrom, meanwhile, forced his way up the inside of Glock to snatch third, with the German immediately surrendering fourth to Wittmann. They would battle for the final two minutes, as Martin continued untroubled. The chequered flag fell on Martin two laps earlier the scheduled due to the maximum time limit for a race, meaning the Belgian claiming a maiden win in only his fifth race. Wittmann crossed the line in fourth to extend his Championship lead, as Ekstrom held on to third and Spengler a lonely second. Christian Vietoris had the honour of being the best Mercedes in seventh, as Farfus ended the race in tenth, right under Mortara's rear wing. Results The race final result is displayed below: * Indicates a driver who started on soft or "option" tyres. Indicates a driver who started on hard or "prime" tyres. Milestones *Maiden pole and victory for Maxime Martin. Standings Marco Wittmann managed to extend his lead in the Championship by a solitary point as a result of the Russian weekend, with climbing to second to become his nearest challenger. Bruno Spengler leapt to third, up an incredible seven places, although the big winner was Maxime Martin, whose victory propelled him into the top six. Christian Vietoris remained the best Mercedes driver down in seventh, with Robert Wickens their only other driver in the top ten. First and fourth in the race meant that BMW Team RMG smashed through the 100 point mark at the half way stage of the Championship, opening a 27 point advantage as they overtook Team Abt. Abt also lost out to sister team Abt Sportsline in Moscow, Team HWA remained the best placed Mercedes team in sixth, as the Stuttgart squad fell ever further back in the Brands' Championship. Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown. References Videos and Images: * References: Category:Moscow Category:2014 Races Category:Races